Historic Preservation Links

Alamo Plaza

Located in the center of downtown San Antonio, adjacent to
Hemisfair Plaza and the San Antonio River, Alamo Plaza is the
commercial center that developed around Texas’ most famous
shrine, the Alamo. The plaza itself was originally part of
the courtyard of the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo).
Today, the Alamo Plaza Historic District contains the Alamo
chapel, the public plaza, and the surrounding commercial
structures built mainly in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.

Alamo Plaza has hosted a diversity of cultures and people
throughout its history. Archaeological excavations have
identified Native Americans remains dating from 2000 years ago.
Upon arrival of the Spanish Catholics in the early
eighteenth century, local Native Americans asked the Franciscan
missionaries for permanent shelter and protection from rival
tribes. In exchange for conversion to Christianity, Native
Americans were provided safe havens within the missions and were
given Spanish names, resulting in the establishment of
Missionary-led Indian towns. Originally founded in 1718,
the Mission San Antonio de Valero was moved twice before it
settled at its current location in 1724. As military
protection became more of a necessity, the Spanish military
established presidios or forts as part of the mission system.
In 1793, the former Mission San Antonio de Valero became a
military garrison to protect Spanish colonial land from the
French. The Alamo later served Mexican armies until the
Texian forces occupied it during the famous 13-day siege in
1836.

In the decade prior to the Civil War, Alamo Plaza became the hub
of a bustling commercial center. Because of Alamo Plaza’s
close proximity to the terminus of the Camino Real, also known
as the "King’s Highway" that
connected
San Antonio to the eastern edge of Spanish territory in Texas,
the area had traditionally served as a central location for
market trading. A city market operated just in front of
the Alamo for many years. Construction of the Menger Hotel
(1859), St. Joseph’s Church (1868), the Crockett Hotel (1868),
and the old Federal Post Office (1877) further fueled
urbanization and commercial activity within the area.

In 1877, a Frenchman, Honore Grenet, bought the Convento
building (the long annex of the original mission compound) and
courtyard from the Catholic Church and built a two-story museum
and grocery store complex with three wooden towers housing false
wooden cannons. In 1888, Alderman Anton Wulff called for
the building of four paved streets around the plaza and the
landscaping of a garden in the center with multiple iron benches
installed at his own expense. This first pavement around the
square consisted of mesquite blocks. William Reuter, who erected
his building on the plaza in 1891, paid to construct the first
bandstand on the plaza, a replica of which stands today. Joske’s
Department Store moved to the Plaza in 1888. During the
late 19th century other leading businesses began establishing
stores in the area, and the majority of buildings within the
district date from this period.